Sunday Challenges

Taking four kids to church by myself always presents a bit of a challenge. We have done great about getting ready in the morning and going to church a little early. We have even done great at sitting on the bench for the most part. Today presented a different challenge. It is always a little tricky to make sure four people get the sacrament when I am the only one I really like to hold the trays for fear that if I receive "help," that "help" will equate to the sacrament trays being tipped over and the entire contents on the floor--has that ever happened to anyone? I'm sure in the history of church-going it has happened to someone, but I really try to avoid that person becoming me! 

So today I had all of my children strategically placed on the bench with Emily on my right so that she doesn't try to grab at the tray. Matthew and Spencer were on my left and the baby was on my lap. It is always a little challenging with a baby that grabs at things to be sitting on my lap, but especially challenging when the boys aren't paying attention. With one hand holding a baby and pinning his arms to me so that they can't grab, and the other holding the sacrament tray, there is no option to tap a shoulder to get attention. 

Today after the bread was passed, I quickly whispered in Matthew and Spencer's ears to pay attention and watch the tray so that when it came to them, they would be ready. So, on to the water . . . 

Spencer and Matthew were paying attention. The problem came in the fact that the family sitting in front of us has a baby just a little older than Gabe. He is also at the stage of pulling himself up to things and had pulled himself up to the back of the bench with his hands hanging over on our side--ready to grab at anything that might be put in his way.  With four little hands ready to grab, passing the sacrament tray through a small space right in front of these little hands presented a huge problem. At that point I needed to be an octopus! Do you see where this is going? 

Before I could pass the tray to the boys on my left, at least two hands had reached out to grab sacrament cups and knocked two on the floor. While trying to grab those two little hands and keep them from doing any more damage, I let up a little on the baby whose hands I had previously had pinned. He was now dipping his fingers in several cups of water. At this point, Matthew was crawling on the floor trying to gather up the lost sacrament cups, and I just gave up trying to safely pass the tray to him and just handed the tray back to the deacon passing the sacrament all the while grateful that the whole tray had not been dumped out! Then I took a deep breath and tried to keep myself from bursting into laughter realizing that if anyone had caught a glimpse of this catastrophe, they would be grinning ear to ear as well.

When Jim got home tonight I told him of this experience and asked if he had ever been in a meeting where the tray had been dropped. He then proceeded to tell me that his very first time passing the sacrament he dropped the tray because he thought the person taking it had ahold of it. I asked him what he did at that point "Did you just pick up in bread?" and responded "No, it was the water!" Okay, I think he wins!